Mission statement: On this blog we explore why homeschooling can be a better option for children and families than a traditional classroom setting. We'll also explore homeschooling issues in general, educational thoughts, family issues, and some other random stuff.

Monday, March 04, 2013

A proposed trip to Mars

The new world was first exploited and settled by various governments, mostly Spain and Portugal. The American colonies were founded by private organizations.

This pattern is happening in space.

The first trips to orbit and then the moon were by the Russian and United States governments. Over the decades various companies found ways to make a ton of money by putting satellites up.

Now a private organization is proposing to leap frog pass NASA and send humans to Mars.

----------At the National Press Club in Washington today, businessman and private space traveler Dennis Tito officially announced his plans to fund a private, nonprofit effort to launch the first human mission to the Red Planet, called Inspiration Mars. To take advantage of an alignment of Earth and Mars that happens once every 15 years and would allow the shortest possible travel time possible between the planets, the mission seeks to launch on January 5, 2018. The crew would return to Earth on May 21, 2019.
Tito's spacecraft will be as stripped-down as possible. There will be no landing, and no need for a landing craft. Instead, the spacecraft will fly to within 100 miles of Mars to give humans the first close-up view of the planet without actually touching down. The crew would also be kept to a bare minimum for safety: just two astronauts
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